Eragon Twenty Four
Chapters A Warrior and a Healer, Water from Sand Summary So, Murtagh, Eragon and Elf Sue (who will remained named as such even when we discover her proper name because this is such a more fitting name) escape on Saphira. They get to a Safe Place and Eragon heals Saphira of her wounds. Then they continue to flee from from the people at Gil'ead until they pratically fall over. Then they stop to rest at dusk. Elf Sue is still unconscious. Elf Sue apparently is going to stay that way for a while. This is mysterious. The Urgals, we learn, are working for the Empire. I predicted this way back... in the beginning of the book. Back when I said, that there couldn't be a third party because that would be too clever for Paolini and he's thinking of these things in terms of black and white. The Urgals are evil and Galby is Evil so therefor they must work together. There can't be a third party because there's no room in the dual system set up here for a third party. Eragon is shocked at this. Then we get this lovely bit of exchange between Saphira and Eragon: "The Urgals were under Galbatorix's orders! Why would he commit such an atrocity on his own subjects?" "Because he is evil, stated Saphira flatly. "(313) Yes. This is the only reason why Galby would do something. Because he is evil. No other motivation is needed. He's just evil. That's it. No deep motivators or plans or thoughts or anything. He's just evil. Evil people -at least evil people in GOOD fiction- generally don't think of themselves as evil. One would assume that Galby is the same and he's doing this for some reason beyond the fact that he's evil. "I think I'll kill a puppy today." "Why Master?" "Because I'm evil." See, normal good villains don't think like that. It would be something more like: "I think I have to kill a puppy today." "Why Master?" "Because I need a sacrifice to talk to my gods about my master plan to take over the world from those stupid hypocrites down in the lowlands." But this could just be me. Murtagh actually makes some sense in saying that no one would believe Eragon and even if they did, what would the people be able to do about it. They finally get to checking out Elf Sue and apparently her back and arms are all bruised and horrible. And for some reason her shirt laces in the back. I don't know the praticallity of that one. In any case, it doesn't matter, Elf Sue gets healed by Eragon and she doesn't even have to worry about any nasty scars remaining because Eragon's magical healing doesn't leave any. God forbid she have scars and not be perfect looking any more. Once healed, Eragon doesn't sleep but says that he can sleep in the saddle. Eragon and Murtagh have another slashy moment at the end of the day when Eragon says that he's not going to abandon Murtagh to the Empire and Murtagh is heartened by his response. Saphira continues to know things as she says that the Varden would welcome them, despite the fact that the last dragon riders around were EVIL and under Galby's rule. But of course since Eragon is the Hero they'll automatically welcome him. Saphria just knows this. Of course. No explanation why or anything. She just does. They decided to leave the Empire by going to the Hadarac desert towards the Beor mountains. It's apparently the same distance from where Murtagh and Eragon met to Gil'ead, which took them about a month to travel. Eragon says that it'll take them much less time because they won't be hampered by his injuries. This timing is important as we'll later see. Then comes the problem of water. After all desert = very little to no water. How does Eragon propose to solve this? He's going to turn sand into water. Brilliant. This, of course, doesn't work. Then we get this lovely bit of information from Saphira: She doesn't know how she does things. She just can do them sometimes by feel. They just happen whether she wills them or not. Basically saying that Paolini has made her one big Dues Ex Machina. If they need an out, well Saphira can do it! How can she do it? Mysterious unknown dragonic abilities that not even she knows about! She's the wonderful plot fix-it device now. The water problem is solved when Eragon realizes that he can bring moisture up from the earth. Water problems are solved. They can go into the desert now no problem! Category:Eragon Category:Inheritance Cycle